jon_jonz

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS ! It was about damn time. I've been watching those live videos and they're all awesome. This band should have a world tour or sometihng like that. Their lives are always incredible.

Thanks Tetora and paradoxal. It wasn't joke. I really mean it. As for J-Melo, it's true they may be stalking the show, but I don't think countries with most people asking for VK artists get the most bands. I've watched preety much every VK artist that performed there and I always see way too much people from the Philippines and Brazil. Brazil is like AN CAFE, MYIAVI and Kaya almost every fucking year and I don't remember seeing any VK band touring the Philippines. The population thingy isn't really a matter too. If it was, we'd get too many bands in Russia, USA and China. Russia and China happen to get a decent amount of bands because of euro tours and the proximity of China to Japan. I've noticed many VK bands have been doing asian tours. I think it happens simply because it's cheaper for them to go to China than to other countries where their fans might be. As for USA and the rest of the world the topics "a lot of previous successful tours and organizers willing to organize a tour" are kinda hard to get. I mean, of course successful tours tours will happen if they bring well-known bands, but they don't. I know it's expensive and all, but srsly, charge me $1000 or more to see Laruku and I'll gladly pay to see them. I know many people who would too, but whenever there's a big band, like, GazettE and DIR EN GREY they charge way too fucking much from the fans. Most of the fans are teenagers who don't have much money and many of them come from other cities, so it's not more sucessful because the organizers make it hard for us fans to follow. So what do they do ? They bring bands no one cares about and it's cheap and they may tour many cities, which would be ideal, if they brought nice bands. I mean, I've seen artists like I-ai- and HITT touring and all, but let's be honest, no one cares for them. Of course there are many weeabos and people like me who support the scene and will go just because it's VK, but if you had the chance to choose bands you'd like to see in your place I'm sure nobody would pick up those bands, because they're nobodies with like 10 songs or less. Not that it's a bad thing, but most of these aren't even active in Japan. My impression is that they just bring those guys because it's cheaper. Like, one-man bands and projects with like, 2 members. So, the solution is really easy. If big bands are too expensive and bringing bands nobody cares about is like a foolish waste of money, since only a few people will go, because nobody knows them, what's the solution ? Bringing bands that are mildly famous, of course. BORN and Lycaon is a perfect perfect choice. They play on most of the most famous indies events in Japan and they get to play with many bands so they'll surely tell all their friends how cool it is to play aborad and all, and they'll all want to come overseas. And srsly, a band from PSC and another one everyone freaks out because they're sexy motherfuckers and both bands actually make damn good music, so why not ? I bet it'll be very sucessful and they should bring more bands like this. It's just a matter of actually studying what their target likes and they may bring bands everyone likes and are not very epensive and voilá, it's good for both the fans and their organizers but if they don't realize this, they'll keep bringing extra expensive bands of the ones nobody cares about. So it's really just a matter of paying attention to what the fans like, which is something the organizers don't seem to care about.

Ok, so let me rephrase my question: Where can I sign the petition to bring them to other CONTINENTS too ?

Suporting Jupiter.

At least they still sound good live, despite their hideous PVs.

And the winner of the worst PV of 2k14 is:

This is sooooooo unexpected. Let's hope they don't ruin this band too.

Awn, the new version of 色彩Polaroid. sounds so cute ! Not very excited about the rest, though. Too many songs they've already released and they should make more heavy music, IMO.

He looks a lot like Lycaon's vocalist. Not even half as sexy, though.

Where can I sign the petition to bring them to other countries too ?

LOL, that's even worst.

HOLY SHIT, YES ! I screamed and I'm far from France, haha. I couldn't care less about SuG or DEAD END, but Sadie should have a world tour >:

WTF are you talking about ? This movie won several nominations, including an Oscar. Natalie Portman is one of the most well-known/best actresses nowadays. ALL of her movies are fucking awesome ! You guys should watch everything she does. I recommend Leon, which was her first movie, and happens to be by far the best. But ok, this isn't a movie forum. I'll let you guys know if I see any other movie references from VK bands.

Yeah, same. He might have a lousy personality, since nobody sticks with him for long, which is a pity, because I do like all of his projects and he's a good vocalist.

So now they call best-ofs a "soundtrack album" ? Pfft, they're so pretentious.

@fitear1590 & ShanethVarosa: I never said I don't like DIV. On the contrary, I do like them, but yeah, they're "going downhill". They were way better up until last year, so, probably, their last really good release to me was that Golden Kinema thingy. After that, they've just been releasing boring music, and the quality dropped. And I'm not blaming any labels for the incompetence of their musicians. As I said before, some bands actually got better after becoming major, and changing the style or becoming popular does not necessarily mean that they have to make shitty music, but most of them do, so the tendency is that it'll happen to DIV too.

He basically said Kameleo makes money only because of the merch and no one cares about their music. It's like people need lamps and they attend to an expensive VK concert packed with crazy bangyas just because they sell great lights, you know ? So why not pay for tickets and listen to their shitty music if you can get a super cool towel and a nice T-shirt ?

I think you fail to realize I wasn't criticizing your opinion. I was just justifying what I said since you decided to criticize me. I don't have to prove you anything. It's kinda obvious. But if you think it's ok for musicians to sell lanterns and they're destroying their career because they just feel like doing it, ok. Believe whatever you want.

Thanks, Artemisia. But you seem to be confusing genre with status. Being VK or not is very a controversial term. I agree they make pop songs therefore they should be categorized as pop band, but AKB48 is an idol group. I don't think they are on the same boat. SID doesn't go around dancing and making choreographies to cheesy tunes. Only because they're pop they can't be VK ? Why not ? What is so great to me about VK is that it's the only musical genre where you can do whatever the fuck you want and still be VK. We have VK bands that make samba, bossa nova, jazz, etc. and they're still VK. Why wouldn't they be ? VK has no rules, in terms of how they should sound like, except for some minor rules nobody really follows. And regardless of your opinion, the bands themselves call what they do VK and so does the media, and pretty much everybody else. So, if you think artists like GACKT, for example are not VK only because they've become too popular, you're wrong. Being VK or not is a matter of aesthetics. GACKT has songs that sound a lot like AKB48, and he even goes around dancing and making choreographies to cheesy tunes, but they way he does it is different, so it looks and sounds different from any other idol group, because it IS VK.

hiroki is right, Shaolan974 is wrong and Tetora seems too naive for me. I could comment every single paragraph you wrote and prove you how wrong you are, but I don't want to discuss. I just wanted to show my point of view and then you replied. But do you really believe once you join a label you're free to do whatever you like ? Do you really think Kameleo sells fucking lanterns because they want to or give a fuck about lanterns ? Do you really believe D.I.D. is "taking their time" ? You seem to believe once you join a major label everything is fine and you're fee to do w/e you like and they won't force you to release tons of stuff and be always in the media, mainly doing stuff you don't like, don't fit the concept of the band, etc. So let's use the examples you mentioned: First of all, let's remove Laruku from this. They're so popular that when they joined their current label they were already one of the most important bands in the history of Japan, so they can do w/e the fuck they want and people WILL buy w/e they do. It's an honor for the label to have them. They don't need a label, because they're so popular that if they have a label or not, if they release anything or not people will still be talking about them, and they'll always appear on mainstream media, etc. The same goes for VAMPS. The idea is if HYDE is on it, it'll see. He can dress as a vampire and sing lousy rick, dress as ghoul and invite his friends to plagiarize music from Tim Burton's movies doing halloween themed shit and even going solo and singing love/melancholic songs and it will sell, so, Laruku is the only exception. I believe they are free to do w/e they want. Their label only makes them go on tours and release stuff when it means a lot, like their 20th birthday, or they just keep re-releasing their older material. SID seems to be getting there too. They kind of kept the same style they had when they were indies. The difference is that they do have a more pop touch to it nowadays and they don't make heavy songs anymore, but basically it is the same jazzy thing. UNiTE is just Canzel 2.0 and MUCC and Girugamesh are a mess. You never know what to expect from their next release, because they seem to be in a never-ending journey to find a new identity because they don't want to do what they did when they did when they were actually good and that's it. They'll keep flirting with new genres and styles and keep changing over and over again, without even keeping its roots, so yeah, people will buy their stuff because they have a name and because they hope they get back what they did back when the band was good, but it won't happen. I never knew one single person who got into MUCC and Girugamesh because of what they do today. They're just old fans that keep supporting these bands, so... But, at least, all the bands mentioned above took their time to get where they are. They've built a huge fanbase of faithful fans that followed them because they've done so many good stuff for so many years, maybe they'll get back to doing good stuff again, right ? Wrong. But they don't want to accept it, or they actually like the new stuff too. And then you ask: "And how would they keep getting worse because they don`t have the experience and maturity to deal with popularity? Wouldn`t they be gaining this experience and maturity as they move on, isn`t that how it works? How do you gain the experience before you are popular?" It's a slow thing, You don't suddenly become extremely popular and that's it. You have to go slowly or things will backfire because in one day you're playing in a filthy hellhole in the most shitty suburbs of Tokyo and in the other day, bang, Budokan ! Remember ViViD ? That's what happened to them. It's the exact same example as DIV. Members from bands that nobody cared about join in a band created by a huge label in order to become extremely popular. In the beginning it was soooooo good, but then they've started to appear too much on TV, do anime songs, play in huge venues, etc and see what happened. Nobody cares about them much anymore. I don't think ViViD sucks. It's actually cool, but it's not even half as good as it used to be when they were indies. And it looks like I'm not the only one. Remember how many people were freaking out whenever ViViD released something new back then ? Take this forum, for example. How many comments their topics had when they were in indies PSC and how many they have now ? It was way more back then. People don't care anymore. Of course there are those who will support the band no matter what, those who still hope they will sound good, etc, but mostly, people don't care anymore, because they've fucked it up and you know why ? Because they've become too popular too quickly. They've changed drastically because they don't know how to deal with all this popularity and that's exactly what is happening to DIV. I don't give a fuck about lyrics and album art, dude. I just want their music to be good. Fuck the rest. I'm not saying they WILL suck because they're becoming too popular but history repeats itself and it happened so many times with so many different bands that the probability of it happening again is huge, but there are some exceptions. There are bands who actually become way better the more popular they become. Let's hope DIV is one of those...

Bands don't usually get worst because they're tired. They get worst when they become more popular. They'll just keeping getting worst because they don't have the experience/maturity to deal with popularity. They came from bands no one cared about and now they're signed to a big label that keeps promoting them over and over again until they get a huge fanbase, so they'll make anime songs, play on big venues and this kind of shit. I think that's the problem with mainstream VK. They invest on nobodies that are actually talented and then force them to keep reaching goals until they become extremely popular and if they do, the probability of them making good stuff is minimal, because I don't think they get anyone to help them and they're just being forced to keep producing over and over again, which is why they relase a bunch of stuff in a short period of time, which means that the quality of their music will drop, because japanese media unfortunately gives more attention to quantity over quality. MAVERICK D.C. GROUP will keep forcing them to make whatever is popular at the moment of the production of a new relrase and that's what they'll do. That's what all bands from this company do, actually. Kameleo is doing funny stuff because GOLDEN BOMBER is a big hit in Japan, Girugamesh is back at doing heavy music again because metalcore is becoming mainstream, D.I.D. is for the kids who like tr00 music and DIV seems to be the pop band. It's just a matter of time before DIV becomes a shitty boy-band, with cute boys that make mediocre music that actually grants a lot of money to their label because that's what teenagers in general like. I like them and I really hope they don't ruin their carreer, but that's what they'll eventually do. CHISA himself kind of said on J-MELO they don't plan to be a VK band for a long time, so I guess the transformation has already begun.

I don't think JIN listens to 12012... It's pretty obvious they named the band after the movie, though.

Btw, I've just noticed something familiar in JIN's profile pic, and then I realized where I knew that make-up from: I now know where the inspiration for the name of this band came from too, hahaha.

So NEGA's ex-drummer and bassist aren't in this band ? Meh, what a deception. It actually makes me sad, because I was really hoping to see them back >: But I'll get over it. Samples are amazing, they look cool, etc. So I hope this band lasts for a long time and they get lots of fans, tour abroad and all. Just by making NEGA-like songs it already makes me extremely interested in this project. Long live THE BLACK SWAN !

Fabusome ! This is the Lycaon I like. Now they just need to get rid of those cheap wigs and we are ok.